


Archive of a Sirius Nature

by EliteEmon



Category: Star Fox Series, Super Smash Brothers, どうぶつの森 | Animal Crossing Series
Genre: Command and Starlink are not considered canon to the starfox characters for this fic, F/M, Friendship between Young Link and Lucina when I get to it, chapters will vary in length, somewhat of a slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 14:25:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17920526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EliteEmon/pseuds/EliteEmon
Summary: As the new Smash tournament begins, Wolf and Isabelle are placed on the same 4 man team alongside Lucina and Young Link. Follow their first couple of interactions, to how they deal with being teammates and much more. This fic is a collection of loosly connected oneshots that will eventually develop into longer story-based chapters the more Wolf and Isabelle's relationship develops.





	1. A Rough Beginning

“ _Arghhh!!_ ” Wolf grunted deeply under his breath, experiencing sharp pains on his left side while also clearly frustrated with the situation he was currently in.

“Hold your arm still Wolf. If you keep twitching it I can’t stitch it up properly.” Isabelle said as she was currently in the process of applying first aid to his injured left arm. Wolf had received a deep cut from Ridley during a 4-man team match earlier in the day and had refused go to the medical staff for treatment afterwards. He seemed content on just wrapping medical bandages around it which prompted Isabelle to insist on taking care of the wound the right way.

“You know if you’re gonna insist on patching me up you could at least be a little more careful in doing it!” Wolf emphasized with a harsh tone.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m doing the best I can.” Isabelle responded nervously while continuing to thread the needle through the open gash. “This is a pretty bad cut too, I still think you should have just gone to the clinic with Young Link and Lucina after the match today.”

“As if I’d do that, I don’t trust a former plumber to patch up my wounds.”

“Um Wolf, you do know Mario hardly works there. In fact, I don’t think he’s allowed to. Not since it’s become common knowledge now that he isn’t licensed…a vast majority of the time certified medical professionals are stationed there.”

Wolf merely grunted not even wanting to respond. Taking his eyes off of Isabelle, Wolf began staring in front of him with a scowl on his face. His wound was honestly only a small contributing factor to his sour mood. What was really riling him up was the fact that their team had lost the match, which in addition to giving Ridley a spiteful pleasure over their little feud, the opposing team also had Fox on it. Losing to the person whom he considered his rival was something he had always hated and this was no exception.

With this current loss, Wolf and Isabelle’s team was set a little lower on the current team ranking. This unfortunately meant Wolf was now lower on the Smash Tournament’s overall ranking in both tag-team and singles than Fox. Something he was not pleased with at all.

“Well in any case, after this incident today, hopefully you won’t feel inclined to be so aggressive when fighting other combatants.” Isabelle said, breaking Wolf out of his little trance.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Wolf responed, taking great offense to what Isabelle just said.

“I just think you might want to be a little more careful in these matches, it’s supposed to be a friendly competition, but you and Ridley really got violent with each other.”

“ _DON’T_ talk to me on how you think I should fight. I personally have more combat experience than a good portion of the people attending this smash event. I’d wager half of the people here have no idea what a real fight is."

“But this tournament isn’t supposed to be a death match Wolf. I don’t understand why you think you need to try so hard that you’d risk serious injury.”

“And that’s none of your concern now is it? How I chose to fight within these matches is my own prerogative.” Wolf was now getting more aggravated than he already was.

 “I’m not gonna sit here and get lectured by someone who stood back only for support. From what I recall you barely pulled your own weight in the match. Don’t think you can tell me how I should fight my battles unless you can do more than set up those stupid rocket mines.”

There was a brief silence in the room. Isabelle was taken a little back by Wolf’s words.

“… I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to lecture you.”

“Good” Wolf huffed.

Isabelle just remained silent and continued on. She was just about done, as the formally open cut was now gone with both sides of the wound was now firmly stitched together. The second Isabelle snipped the last bit of excess synthetic medical string from the stitched up wound Wolf immediately stood up from his seat.

“So you’re all done I take it?” Wolf said while doing a quick inspection of his closed up wound.

“What? W-wait Wolf, I finished stitching it up but I still need to apply this special medical ointment—“

“No, the cut is all stitched up, you’re done!” Wolf said walking over to the door.

“No you don’t understand, your stitches are keeping your cut closed up but it can still get infected, I need to apply this ointment over the wou—“

“NO! you’re done- now go!”

“But—“

“NOW!” Wolf Shouted opening the door.

What followed was yet another uncomfortable moment of silence. The tension in the room was thick due to Wolf’s aggravated mood. Wolf clearly wasn’t willing to listen and Isabelle took the hint. Knowing she wasn’t wanted here any longer, she got up from her seat and walked over to the door.

Before she left however, Isabelle turned back to Wolf and said, “I’m sorry Wolf, I really hope your wound heals up well.” And with that she left Wolf’s dorm room and made her way down the hallway.

Alone at last, Wolf shut the door and proceed to sit back down starting into space wallowing in his frustrations for the remainder of the day uninterrupted.

\----------

Later that night well after all the matches of the day had concluded and most smash participants were in their designated dorm rooms sleeping for the night, Wolf was wide awake as he feverishly tossed and turned in his bed. Trying to rest only to be met with throbbing pain from his arm where his cut was.  His cut was fairly numb for most of the day so Wolf didn’t think much of it. It was only after the evening rolled around that he started feeling pain.

Reality set in as Wolf realized that had he not ignored this problem (or at least given it a little attention) he likely wouldn’t be struggling to deal with this pain. But here he was, drenched in cold sweat with his stitched up wound feeling like it was on fire.

“…Fucking shit, this hurts so damn much…” Wolf growled under his breath and clenching his arm. Concluding that trying to sleep in his current condition was a futile effort, Wolf simply got up deciding it wasn’t worth it to still be in bed if he couldn’t relax. Thankfully for him he didn’t have a match for the next two days, so it didn’t matter how little sleep he got.

Wolf made his way over to the bathroom to take a look at his wound. As he turned on the light and looked in the mirror, he was a little shocked at how badly his bandages were stained. When he unwrapped the bandages, he saw that the actual cut itself wasn’t much better: covered with dried blood and pus in-between the stitching. 

“Damn it.” Is all Wolf thought seeing the condition of his arm and proceeded to properly wash it with warm water.

_“I swear the next time I face that overgrown newt in match I’m gonna kill him!”_

Now fully awake and with the wound cleaned, Wolf decided that he needed a drink, _badly._ With the night he’s had so far, he just wanted something to calm himself down and take his mind off of things. Unfortunately for Wolf, as he began walking through his dorm room to the mini fridge he banged into the coffee table causing him to let out another curse.

What caught his attention however was that the sound of something falling on the ground in front of him. Confused, he picked up what seemed to be a small container and brought it back over the well-light bathroom.

It was the healing ointment Isabelle had left at in his dorm. She likely forgot to take it with her when Wolf practically forced her out of his room earlier in the day. Wolf was so caught up in his own attitude since then that he evidently didn’t realize it was still on the table this whole time.

Sighing deeply, Wolf unscrewed the cap to the container and began applying the ointment to his cut. He decided that there was no harm in using it since doing nothing obviously hadn’t worked. He had nothing to lose. The process only took about a minute, with the ointment fully applied to his wound and a new set of bandages secured around it, Wolf simply sat down and waited for it to take effect.

After about 7 or so minutes had passed, the pain finally started to subside and was replaced with a slight numb sensation. A sense of relief washed over Wolf’s body now that his arm no longer felt like it was being stabbed with a heated iron rod. 

Wolf just stared at the container thinking about everything that had happened recently that led up to his current situation. About two weeks ago Wolf had receive an invitation to attend the latest smash tournament, it being dubbed the “Ultimate” compared to all the previous ones. 

Although this wasn’t his first time participating in Smash, Wolf was still nonetheless surprised to be invited back after only participating once before. Naturally, he eagerly jumped at the chance to take part in a fighting tournament, giving him a little break from his usual life as a mercenary. But upon his arrival he had noticed a lot of things had changed about the smash tournament since he had last been there. For one thing, many newcomers had been invited alongside all of the returning veterans. Many people he didn’t recognize or didn’t really care to know about.

On top of this, it wasn’t just the number of tournament participants that was different, new rulesets were put into play to give more variety to the standard tournament layout. This really didn’t bother Wolf so much except for the fact that team battles were now a mandatory part of the tournament. Even worse was that teams were chosen at random which meant Wolf had no say in the matter on who he got paired with for the rest of the time the tournament took place… which brings us to how he got matched up with the newcomer called Isabelle alongside Young Link and Lucina.

He didn’t have much interest in conversing with any of his teammates. Wolf would usually split off from the group after any matches they had together. Obviously today in particular was not different, except that he had lashed out at his team’s loss even though it wasn’t anyone’s fault in particular.

Thinking back on this whole situation, Wolf couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed with his attitude. He was so blinded by his anger earlier in the day that he stupidly brushed off a serious injury that could have worsened considerably had Isabelle not helped him out like she did. In hindsight Wolf was still a little bewildered that she went through with it given his hostile attitude towards here from the very start.

Realizing that it was far too late in the night to dwell on things any more than he has, Wolf got up and went to go get a beer from his fridge to settle his mood. After a quick swig of the drink, Wolf headed back to the bed room and crashed on his bed.

\----------

With only about 3 hours of sleep, Wolf woke up the next day feeling groggy to say the least. After all his fumbling around trying to deal with the pain it was a miracle is was able to get any sleep at all. It was all thanks to that ointment Isabelle accidentally left and because of that Wolf knew what he had to do.

After doing all of the mid-morning necessities such as washing up and getting a cup of coffee to fully wake up, Wolf made his way to Isabelle’s room, all the while bracing himself for what he was about to do. It was something he rarely (if ever) did: **_apologize!_**

Walking through the hallways where the dorm rooms were located was always a pain at this time in the morning as nearly everyone was scrambling to wake up and get themselves ready for the day ahead. Though not everyone woke up at the same time it didn’t change the fact on how congested the hallways got with people walking through them whether they were coming or going. Wolf did his best to keep his head down and maintain a low profile as he didn’t have the energy to deal with anyone at the moment.  

Aside from catching a few people’s attention with his indifferent manner (Including his other teammates, and even his rival Fox), Wolf managed to make it to Isabelle’s room with little trouble. Now that he was here, Wolf reluctantly knocked on the door in front of him knowing this was going be an awkward interaction. After the knock, there was a faint “Hang on, I’ll be right there.” coming from the other side of the Door.

As she opened the door to see who it was, Isabelle was shocked to see Wolf standing in front of her.

“Uh…hey.” was all Wolf could utter, still feeling somewhat uneasy about doing this, not knowing how this was going to turn out.

“Oh, ah…hello Wolf…I didn’t really expect to see you…at least not until our next team match.”

“Here.” Wolf said bluntly as he extended his hand out in front of him, holding the ointment container in his hand. “You left this in my room yesterday.”

“Oh, thank you Wolf I—ah didn’t realize I forgot it.“ Isabelle replied.

“It worked very well…..I used it sometime after you left”

At this point the uncomfortable tension in the air was getting a little too much for the both of them, though unlike yesterday the tension wasn’t born out of hostility but rather the akward nature of the interaction on Wolf’s part due to how he was speaking, as if he was forcing himself to do it. Though Isabelle was doing a good job of remaining calm and patient, Wolf unfortunately could only turn his head to the side as to avoid Isabelle’s gaze.

“Here’s the thing…I…didn’t just come by just to give it back to you. I also came here to say…I’m sorry.”

The tension settled a little bit as Wolf managed to finally say it. Isabelle was greatly surprised, she was not expecting an apology.

Wolf continued. “I was angry over something trivial and I said some very harsh things I really shouldn’t have, this also includes shooing you out of my room when you finished stitching up my left arm. Frankly you weren’t obligated to do even that, but you did anyway despite the way I treated you.”

As Wolf finished his sentence, Isabelle simply lowered her head slightly, looking as the floor beneath them and remained silent for about minute or two, likely processing Wolf’s apology. To her credit, no one could really blame her for her stunned response considering Wolf prior actions.

What caught Wolf’s attention at that moment was a faint smile appearing on Isabelle’s face.

“Thank you for apologizing Wolf, It means a lot. I’m happy you came by and did it.”

Isabelle then pointed towards the ointment Wolf still had in his hand “You should hang on to this for the time being and keep applying it. Your wound will heal much faster if you do. As for what happened yesterday, consider it water under the bridge, we can start fresh as a team when our next team match comes up alright?”

“Yeah……Sounds good to me….” Wolf agreed. “….So….. I suppose I’ll be going now, see you around?”

“Yes, I will see you around Wolf.” Isabelle replied.

With the awkward apology having been given, Wolf walked off down the hallway as Isabelle waved him goodbye before shutting her door. At this moment Wolf was a little unsure on how his interactions with Isabelle would be from then on, but he could only guess that based on what just happened that this Smash tournament was going to be an interesting experience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This beginning chapter came out a little more Wolf centric than I originally intended, with not as much focus put on Isabelle. Sorry for that, but thankfully this will not be the case for later chapters. With that being said, I still think It was a good start to the story with a solid set up. Also, as stated in the tags, chapters will vary in length before I fully settle into multi-chapter plots.
> 
> Lastly, I want to give a special thanks to my good friend Jonathan Yee who drew me the pictured used for the Fic’s Icon (though this is only viewable on the Fanfiction.net version). You can find him on twitter under his name.


	2. Small Talk Can Make A Big Difference

Waking up early was something Wolf never really enjoyed doing, it wasn’t impossible for him to do so but it was always a strenuous process that made him wish that he could take his time getting out of bed. This preference for wanting to sleep in was probably a result of the freelance lifestyle he had as a mercenary. If you didn’t complete the jobs you got contacted for, you wouldn’t get paid, plain and simple. And when your livelihood depends on the money earned from said jobs, you have no choice but to restructure your sleep schedule around your work.

True to form, it was no different for Wolf as he was often faced with long nights and earlier mornings on various jobs that made his sleep schedule an inconsistent mess. Though as much as he hated it, at this point he was used to it. No rest for the wicked as the old saying goes…

Since entering the Smash tournament however, Wolf would often wake up in the later hours of the mid-morning if he was given the chance. Today wasn't any different than usual. With no matches until much later in the afternoon, Wolf gladly took the opportunity to rest up for a few more hours.

Once he finally managed to wake up and drag himself out of bed, the first thing that came to mind was getting some coffee. In the blink of an eye, Wolf threw on his clothes and left his dorm room.

\----------

Walking down the hallways, Wolf casually made his way to the only (at least to his knowledge) coffee machine in the smash mansion and was met with a familiar sight once he got there.

"Dammit, this line is always here.” Wolf muttered under his breath, rubbing his forehead in annoyance.

Just like every mid-morning in the Smash mansion lounge, there was a line for the coffee pot, something that had become a constant sight for Wolf ever since the tournament began and one he wished would cease to happen.

Just as Wolf was about to close his eyes and try and tune out everything around him until the line disappeared he heard a voice from behind him say, "Hello Wolf.”

A little confused at hearing his name being called out, Wolf turned around slightly to see who had greeted him. It was none other than Isabelle.

“Oh…hey…Isabelle” was really all Wolf could reply with, being caught off guard by her sudden appearance as well as still feeling somewhat drowsy.

“Waiting in line for coffee I see. Mind if I join you?” Isabelle asked in her usual cheerful tone.

"...Sure, you're welcome to if you want.” Wolf replied somberly.

A few minutes passed by of them standing in silence next to each other in line. The wait was easier for Isabelle as she was maintaining a patient attitude. Wolf however was just getting steadily more annoyed at a certain someone who was holding up the line at the front. Noticing this, Isabelle decided to take the initiative and speak up.

“I don’t mean to pry but you seem rather irritated Wolf, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just wish this line would go faster! I swear this line is here every day and every time it's always Bowser holding it up because he's so anal about brewing his coffee as strong as he can get it.” Wolf huffed. "He needs to learn to hurry the hell up.”

“Hey, come on now Wolf, there’s no need to be so vindictive towards him over something relatively minor. Bowser is just trying to brew it to his liking.”

Wolf passively glanced back at Isabelle as if to say she was out of her mind, only then to turn his attention back to Bowser who threw out yet another filter and dumped out the contents of coffee pot in the sink to start over….again.

Seeing this, Wolf put his hand over his face and groaned, as did most of the other people in line. "I'm just sick of having to wait so long every time I want a cup. I remember the last time I was here during the brawl tournament a few years ago. There was hardly ever a line."

"It can't really be helped Wolf. With more and more people attending this smash tournament, the more lines are going to happen while waiting for a turn to use the facilities.” Isabelle replied. In truth she understood where Wolf’s frustrations were coming from. The lines for every facility in the smash mansion whether it was restrooms, the café, or the showers were starting to get longer. Even Isabelle had to admit it was getting annoying feeling like everything was on a first come first serve basis

"If that’s the case the staff should have at least gotten a second coffee machine by now.” Wolf argued.

"Well…It's not really their fault Wolf. From what I understand this smash tournament is the biggest one yet. There's going to be a few oversights here and there when so many people come together for an event.” Isabelle explained.

“I guess the staff just didn't see the need in getting a second coffee machine in the lounge. There were far fewer people participating in the previous tournaments. It's only really become a problem now.”

“In any case just try and relax a little bit okay Wolf? The line will be over before you know it. No need to work yourself up so much.” Isabelle continued in a soft tone hoping Wolf would take her advice.

“Eh. Whatever.” Wolf muttered, clearly over the whole ordeal by now.

Thinking to himself, Wolf could only hope that at some point soon he would get a solo match against Bowser. It would be the perfect excuse to give him a good wallop as payback. Wolf actually snickered to himself wondering if all the other participants that usually got stuck behind Bowser in line would cheer him on for the thrashing would give the Koopa.

Out of nowhere, a random thought had just occurred to Wolf that piqued his curiosity.

“Hey Isabelle, why is it I haven’t seen you in line for coffee until now?” Wolf questioned.

“Oh well it's because I usually just come here much earlier in the morning, around 6 or so, and make myself a cup while everyone else is still waking up.”

“Even though I don't technically have to most of the time, I wake up so early because I'm just so used to my work schedule back at home. A small unintentional benefit of my job I guess.” Isabelle stated with a somewhat awkward smile.

"...I see.”

Isabelle continued on "The reason today is so different is because I had a late night last night, I was just so tired that I took my time waking up this morning."

“You know, now that I think about it, you don’t really strike me as the type of person who even drinks coffee. To be honest you look pretty alert and awake without needing it" Wolf said.

Isabelle giggled a little bit upon hearing this "Are you kidding me? I'm practically a caffeine addict. Coffee is something I drink pretty regularly due to my busy work schedule I tend to have back at home. During the few times I manage to get up and start the day without it I still like to have some decaf because I like the taste.”

“I’ve never had decaf, I usually just stick to standard caffeinated coffee for energy.”

“Really? What’s your schedule usually like that you need all that energy for if I may ask?”

Wolf stood there for a moment, thinking about how to answer her question. He wasn’t exactly sure how much he wanted to share about his personal life with her. Let alone with anyone in the tournament. He pondered about his recent work history and state of living. From taking on morally questionable missions against the Cornerian military and remnants of Andross’s armada to flying back and forth between space sectors in the Lylat system. It was a lot to explain and something Wolf didn’t really care enough to do for someone he just met not too long ago.

"Hectic and never really consistent. In my line of work nothing is concrete because you have to go out and find work on your own. But lately I've had various ... odd jobs that have taken up long afternoons and nights, so I've just been waking up in the late mornings.” Wolf explained.

"Then again, when you're drifting through deep space for extended periods of time, your sense of day and night kind of get muddled. In the recesses of space, it tends to always feel like night time.”

Isabelle giggled hearing this. "I'll have to take your word for it, it must be rough sometimes.”

“You get used to it.”

“That reminds me Wolf. It’s been about four days, how is your cut doing?” Isabelle questioned as she saw Wolf adjust his left shoulder out of discomfort.

"Huh? Oh...It's doing fine.” Wolf replied. He lightly swung his left arm around showing that he could move it freely. "I'm not having any issues with it during matches but there is still some itchiness and irritation from time to time. But that usually goes away after I reapply the ointment at night."

“That's good, I'm glad you’re still using it. You'll have to let me know when it fully heals up so I can remove the stitches for you."

"Yeah….I'll be sure to.” Wolf replied.

\---------

From one topic to the next, Wolf and Isabelle continued to converse with each other. All the while completely unaware of what was happening around them. For one, Bowser finally finished making his coffee. Once he finished and left, the line practically dissipated as everyone was able to fill their cups up and leave. It seemed like Wolf and Isabelle were just talking in the middle of the lounge for no discernible reason to the average onlooker. Isabelle took notice of this as she saw the vacant space in front of them where the line previously was.

“Oh hey Wolf, look!" Isabelle said as she pointed behind him "The line’s gone. The coffee machine is free!”

Wolf immediately turned his head almost in disbelief, but true to her words Isabelle was right. A dumbfounded Wolf glanced at the clock on the wall and realized he had been talking with Isabelle for almost twenty minutes. Even more amusing, Wolf didn't even notice that halfway through his conversation with Isabelle he had turned around to face her, sticking his back towards the line, not caring about it.

“See? The wait wasn't so bad. It was over before we even knew it!” Isabelle said cheerfully.

"Eh...I guess.” Wolf muttered in an awkward nonchalant tone as he and Isabelle both made their way over to the coffee machine. Wolf began changing the filters and pouring hot water into the machine.

“So, how do you like your coffee Isabelle?" Wolf asked.

“Huh!? Wolf you don't need to make my coffee for me, I can do that after you're done."

"It's fine, I don't mind. I'm already here and it won't take that long. Unlike Bowser.” Wolf snidely remarked quietly.

"Oh well, thank you Wolf. If you don't mind, could you make it with Micho beans mix, extra milk, and three spoonfuls of sugar?"

“Uh, yeah.” Wolf replied rummaging through all the different pre-mixed coffee blends displayed on the counter.

"Here it is.” He grabbed the mocha blend and began to pour it into the machine. After about five minutes of waiting the coffee finished brewing and Wolf handed the cup over to Isabelle standing beside him.

"Thank you Wolf, it smells lovely…and tastes excellent!" Isabelle said taking a sip.

"Don't mention it.” He began to change the filter again to make his cup.

After about another five minutes of waiting Wolf finally got his cup of coffee he had longed for since getting out of bed. A content sigh escaped Wolf’s mouth once he managed to take a long drink of it.

"Would you like it if this became a regular routine?” Isabelle suddenly asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Wolf said looking beside him at Isabelle who was staring off into space in front of her.

"I mean meeting up for coffee in the mornings and casually chatting with each other while we wait in line. You seemed like you started to enjoy the conversation and it made the wait easier to tolerate right?"

“Well…yeah. But don't you wake up at the crack of dawn? That would mean waiting a couple hours until I get up.”

“True, but not if we split the difference between ourselves. If you think you can manage waking up an hour or two earlier, I could sleep in an extra hour on my side. And then we can just meet up at the coffee machine.”

“Tempting" Wolf teased. "But it sounds like I would be the one getting the raw end of the deal here, having to wake up earlier while you sleep in.”

"I suppose that’s true,” Isabelle said with a cheeky smile, “then again it is your choice. Just remember that less people will be in line the earlier you get here."

Wolf chuckled and gave a faint smile. "Fine, that sounds like a plan. If it means not getting stuck behind Bowser in line then I guess I could give it a try."

With that, the two canines stood there enjoying their coffee and each other’s company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if the flow of this chapter felt a little disjointed. A lot of back and forth dialogue between characters with not much physically happening can be a little awkward to write even if jumping off of one topic to the next is pretty normal for a conversation.
> 
> I ended up having to revise this chapter a little bit because there were a lot of different topics I had planned for Isabelle and Wolf to talk about. But feeling that it’s still too soon in the story and not wanting to extend the chapter anymore than it already is I felt it was better to save some stuff for later oneshots/chapters.


	3. A Kind Gesture

_During an especially windy day, a 4-man team battle royal was taking place on Icicle Mountain, the borderline hazardous weather however was negatively affecting one smash combatant in particular._

\----------

“Gotcha!” Wolf uttered faintly under his breath as he fired his blaster and hit K.rool square in his mid-section preventing him from grabbing Lucina. There was 6 minutes left in the match and Wolf was providing Young Link and Lucina cover with his blaster from across the stage while they fought in the forefront. Before he could make his next shot Wolf’s concentration was immediately broken by a loud sneeze coming from behind him.

“ACHOO”

Wolf quickly glanced behind him and saw his teammate Isabelle sniffling a little bit from the sneeze that just occurred. “What’s with you?” Wolf said somewhat half-heartedly, still trying to pay attention to the battle.

“I-I’m f-f-freezzzing” Isabelle said while shivering profusely, her arms wrapped around her body in a desperate attempt to stay warm. “The An-nouncer said we-e would-d be battling on a c-cold s-stage, that’s why I wore m-my light w-winter clothes, bu-b-but I n-never imagined we’d be f-fighting in a t-tundra.” To Isabelle’s credit she wasn’t wrong, the stage was pretty harsh temperature wise.

With no enemies immediately in front of them Wolf paused for a moment to get a good look at Isabelle, she was shaking non-stop with a sickly look on her face. Judging by her current condition it was pretty clear that at this rate she wouldn’t even last until the end of the battle. Wolf let out a calm sigh and unzipped his jacket.

“Here” Wolf said giving Isabelle his jacket and wrapping in around her. “Wear this to warm up and just hang back while the rest of the team and I finish the match.”

Though it wasn’t winter gear, Wolf’s leather stitched jacket still provided some much need warmth to Isabelle. I took about a minute or so for Isabelle’s breathing to return to normal but when it did she spoke up. “Thank you Wolf, this is very kind of you” Isabelle said warmly.

Wolf grunted slightly hearing this “Stop with that nonsense would you, a sick teammate is no use on the battlefield, that’s it” Wolf retorted stubbornly. But despite his rude sounding tone and words, Isabelle could tell he was just putting up a front.    

“But what about you? You’re only in your undershirt now, aren’t you just risking getting sick yourself now?” Isabelle questioned.

“I’ll be fine, I can handle colder temperatures very well thanks to my thick fur.” Wolf replied as he began to realign his targeting scope on his blaster. The match was almost over but thankfully Young Link and Lucina were holding their own pretty well with the enemy team. Now that Isabelle was taken care of, Wolf resumed his position in the battle by providing cover fire to his other teammates.  

“Thank you again Wolf” Isabelle said sincerely. Wolf just continued firing his blaster with a smirk on his face as he targeted his opponents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extremely short chapter I know but the next one will be longer I promise. More than anything this chapter is meant to be a brief sweet moment between Wolf and Isabelle while I outline other chapters. 
> 
> Also two minor details I want to clear up: 1) I am aware that the Ice climbers stage Icicle Mountain from melee did not make a return in Ultimate, however I felt that this stage was a little more appropriate given its larger size compared to Summit, it made it more plausible that Wolf and Isabelle could be off on the sidelines for a couple of minutes without being swarmed by the enemy team. 2) The reason Young Link wasn’t affected by the Cold like Isabelle despite having exposed arms and legs was due to the fact that he asked his BoTW Counterpart to make him a dish that temporarily would raise his body temperature.


	4. Hitting The Mark

_Break the Targets, a specialized challenge focused around a smash combatant's ability to locate and break targets scattered around an obstacle course that was uniquely designed for each contestant. What was once a highly popular test of skill hosted alongside the main tournament has now since been retired since the 3rd tournament. As of now it has been restructured into a simple target practice shooting gallery located in the lower levels of the Smash mansion for tournament participants to come and practice their aiming skills at their own leisure…_  
\----------

In the blink of an eye, an energy shot was fired from one of the booths in the shooting gallery. Tilted in angle and with uneven trajectory, the energy blast just barely hit the intended target located on the back wall.

"0ooh shoot" Isabelle said as her grip on the smash tournament regulated blaster tightened out of mild frustration. She had been at this for nearly two hours and only now was she able to hit the targets, but just barely. Her aim was still inconsistent and poor at best.

Taking a breath to calm down, Isabelle took a second to reposition herself on her stool after the recoil from the last blast threw her somewhat off balance.

"Relax, that was a pretty decent shot” Wolf said reassuringly. He was standing in the stall right next to Isabelle also practicing his aiming with his own Blaster. “You're getting better. You’re starting to hit the outer rims of the targets now."

“I suppose so…” Isabelle replied meekly.

Recently Wolf and Isabelle’s team had been participating in battles where smash licensed items were allowed. Rulesets for matches changed often during the tournament, so it wasn’t unusual to see teams carrying around items from the storage lockers in the practice arenas. Mixing things up every once in a while kept everyone on their toes.

Sometimes this made the matches more unexpected, fun even. Despite this, Wolf typically didn't bother with using items as he felt it was better to stick with his own weapons that he was acquainted with. Isabelle however decided to try her hand out on various equipment that was given to them hoping it would help level the playing field between her and some of the more powerhouse members of the tournament. It’s true that what Isabelle lacked in physical strength she made up for in her assortment of unorthodox tools she used. But creative application though it may have been, once Bowser burned her parasol with his fire breath Isabelle realized she needed to try something different.

Over the course of the last few weeks in-between an uneven mixture of wins and losses, Wolf had noticed one thing during these item matches. That aside from being inexperienced with most of the weapons provided, Isabelle was having a hard time aiming ranged weapons properly. Being unusually generous and figuring that he had nothing to lose, Wolf offered to help Isabelle practice her aiming which led them meeting here at the shooting gallery.

"I'm sorry that it’s taking so long Wolf. It's hard using these energy blasters.” Isabelle said

“No need to apologize, it’s just a matter of getting the hang of it”

“That’s just it though, I'm not too comfortable with using a heavy-duty weapon such as this.”

Wolf snickered a tiny bit with what Isabelle said. “You're kidding right? The intensity on these blasters has been set so low that they're practically toys, you'd be hard pressed to be able to harm anyone with these things beyond a slight stun"

“I’m SERIOUS Wolf.” Isabelle said sternly as she looked at him with a serious face. “It may not fire any bullets or lethal energy blasts but it’s still a gun and I’ve never used one before these item matches started.”

Wolf just closed his eye and sighed. “I suppose that’s fair, in terms of ranged weapons I’ve only ever seen you use that slingshot of yours, anything with more fire power probably would seem “heavy-duty” to you.”

“Exactly, it just doesn’t feel right to me.”

"You'll get used to it with time. The more you practice the easier it gets." Wolf then fired off his own blaster, hitting the target dead center and shattering it to pieces. Isabelle couldn’t help but be amazed at Wolf’s aiming skills. The entire time that both her and Wolf had been at this shooting gallery, Wolf had hit and destroyed every single one of the targets lined up for him. For someone with only one working eye, his aim was impeccable.

“Just give it another go.” Wolf said as he flipped a switch at his booth which caused a new target to spawn in place of the previous one on the back wall.

As instructed, Isabelle prepared herself for another shot. With a tight grip on the trigger she fired off the blaster. Just like last time, the shot misses the center and only hits the rim in the same place as before.

Disappointed but not surprised, Isabelle thought for a moment and figured it was time she spoke up about something. "I don't think it's just my handling of the blaster Wolf….the targets are a little hard for me to see.” Isabelle stated.

“Oh?” Wolf took a quick side glance at the targets on the back wall and then back at their booths, roughly measuring the distance with his eye. “They're only about fifteen or so meters away, it's not that far."

"Maybe not for most people but I'm near-sighted.” Isabelle plainly stated.

“You are!? Why did you say anything sooner?”

“I mean...I can still see the targets at the back of the room, they just look kinda blurry. Also, I guess I didn’t want to make a fuss or seem like I was making excuses for my poor aim.”

Starting to feel a little embarrassed, Isabelle turned away from Wolf and simply looked down at the blaster she was still holding. From Wolf’s perspective, he felt as though she was intentionally trying to avoid his gaze. Thinking back, Wolf realized that Isabelle being near-sighted explained a few things, such as why she stuck to using her slingshot in place of any other ranged weapon. It was probably the only projectile weapon she could properly use with her range of vision.

Then it hit him, Was Isabelle not open about her condition beforehand for fear of making excuses because she thought she was dragging her team down? Their team had had a few losses recently and given Wolf’s competitive attitude maybe she didn’t want to cause any conflict.

Truth be told, ever since Isabelle stitched up his arm, Wolf had tried keeping his harsh attitude for winning subdued. He hadn’t shown any signs of being frustrated (at least in terms of battle results) with his team unlike when the tournament first started. But perhaps Isabelle was still weary of that side of him.

“If you’re having troubling seeing the targets from that far away, then let’s make a little adjustment” Wolf readjusted a dial on Isabelle's booth causing the targets at the end of the room to slowly move closer to them. The targets stopped about 6-7 meters away them.

“Better?” Wolf inquired.

“Yes, very much so.”

“If you're having trouble with something speak up, don’t hesitate because you think you’re making excuses.”

“Alright Wolf I will, thank you.”

With the target now comfortably within Isabelle’s range of vision, she once again prepared to fire off another shot at the target. However, she still looked like she was having difficulty, her balance was off and she still looked like she was holding the blaster nervously. This caught Wolf’s attention and gave him an idea.

“Here, let me help you out a little further.” Wolf said as he got up from his booth and stepped over to Isabelle. To her surprise, Wolf positioned himself right behind her. His body was lightly pressing against her back and tail with his head right above hers, slightly to the side. His arms reached out around her and gripped the blaster with his paws, which laid over her own paws holding the handle. Wolf's body practically enveloped Isabelle.

Though Wolf didn't see it, Isabelle began to blush profusely as she was practically nestled in and smothered in-between Wolf's chest and arms, she could practically feel his body heat radiating off of him and onto her. It was a bit of a sudden shock to Isabelle, but it was also oddly comforting being in his embrace. Being so close to him like this, it didn’t really occur to Isabelle until now how much bigger Wolf was compared to her.

"Okay so what you're gonna want to do is hold the blaster like this.” Wolf said repositioning the gun a little closer to Isabelle's face which broke Isabelle out of her little fluttered daze.

"When aiming a gun or any kind of ranged weapon it's important that you get a good feel for the scoop, which means aligning your sight with the target."

Isabelle tried her best to follow Wolf's advice, though the current Smash blaster model had no aiming scoop, she was still able to line up her sight with the center of the bullseye styled target after about a minute.

"Keep your arms steady as you hold the blaster" Wolf said as took his left hand off of Isabelle's and firmly gripped the barrel of the blaster to help keep it in place.

"And lastly, stiffen your body as you pull the trigger to embrace for the little bit of recoil you’ll feel from the shot.”

With that in mind, Isabelle held her positioning and pulled the trigger. In an instant, the shot fired fiercely from the blaster and hit the center of the target dead on, breaking it into pieces.

"I GOT IT!" Isabelle shouted enthusiastically.

"Well done.” Wolf said in congratulative manner. He couldn’t help but grin alongside Isabelle who looked as if she won first place in a local shooting contest. “now give it a try on your own"

Using the advice she was given, along with the hand’s on demonstration, Isabelle geared up for another shot. She flipped the switch on her booth causing another target to spawn in front of her. Isabelle stiffened her body, took aim, and fired. Though a little off centered, the blast still hit the general middle area of the target, destroying it.

“looks like you’re got the hang of this now, as I told you it just takes a little practice.” Wolf said earnestly.

“It’s all because of your advice. Thanks for the Help Wolf, I really appreciate it.” Isabelle said with a smile on her face.

“Don’t mention it.” Wolf replied.  
\----------

As Isabelle continued to practice firing the blaster with Wolf along side her, neither had noticed that they were being watched but someone close by.

On the opposite side of the large room containing the shooting gallery, there was a smaller subsection of the target range specifically designed for Bow and Arrows. While practicing his archery, Young Link had also been observing his two teammates for the last 10 minutes or so. Unintentionally at first, but he was made aware of their presence after hearing their voices. To Young Link’s credit, it was hard to not notice a pair like them. Seeing Wolf helping out Isabelle put a content smile on his face.

"Heh, glad he seems to be softening up a little bit, even if it's only around Isabelle.” Young Link said to himself before turning around and resuming his own target practice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Look at that, dialogue from a different character who isn’t Wolf or Isabelle, took a little while but it happened. Don’t worry though, the next chapter will have some actual interaction With Young Link and Lucina so look forward to it. Also, something to note, from this chapter onward I’m gonna start branching out a tiny bit to other characters (but mainly just the Young Link and Lucina) to help give the story a little more depth now that I have a good ground work for the setting. Keep in mind that this is still gonna be a Wolf/Isabelle centric fic.
> 
> One Last thing. As you may have noticed, there is artwork present in this chapter as well as the previous three. This is because I recently talked with my good friend Jonathan who provided me with the cover art for the Fic and we decided to start collaborating. He was kind enough to start doing illustrations for each chapter! The artwork will also be available on his twitter account I mentioned at the end of the first chapter so feel free to head on over if you desire.


	5. Food for Thought

[ **Wolf O’Donnell** -[ **29** ]-]

Wolf scowled as he stared straight at the number next to his name on the tournament rank listing. It seemed to taunt Wolf the longer he looked at it as he compared his placement with that of his longtime rival Fox, who was currently ranked No. 20. The gap between the two wasn’t big, but it wasn’t decreasing very much either. In fact, ever since the Smash Tournament began, Fox had maintained a steady lead over Wolf, managing to stay a good 10-15 placements above him.

The likely reason for this constant lead in the rankings was probably due to the fact that Fox simply had more experience fighting against many of the other combatants. After all, unlike Wolf who had only participated in one of the pervious tournaments, Fox had been present for every single one since they first began. A disadvantage Wolf couldn’t really do anything about.

It was only just today that Wolf had managed to close the gap slightly after winning two matches earlier that morning. His rank had increased enough to be in the same bracket as Fox, but only just barely. Close, but not close enough in his opinion. Not helping Wolf’s utter frustration was the fact that his current rank was as close to Fox’s as he had so far been able to get.

Wolf just continued to stand there in the smash mansion lounge, staring in silence at the rank listing on the wall, totally oblivious to everyone around him until he heard a voice speaking to him from the side.

“Try not to dwell too much on your current ranking.”

Wolf turned his head slightly to the right to see who was talking to him, it was Meta Knight. The small rounded swordsmen had saw Wolf sulking in front of the monitor for the last ten minutes and figured he could say something to ease the bipedal wolf’s mind.

“The tournament is still in its early stages. Initial placements will inevitably change over the course of the competition as more matches take place. If winning is what you desire, you still have plenty of time to refine your skills and increase your win count.”

This fell on deaf ears unfortunately as Wolf simply brushed the star warrior’s words aside, not caring to listen.

“Feh, Who the hell asked you?” Wolf responded.

Wolf then turned around and made his way towards the lounge exit. He had wasted enough time in there as it was, he didn’t need to stay and get pitied by the other smash participants.

Feeling hungry, Wolf decided to head on over to the cafeteria. He had another match later in the afternoon and figured he should probably eat something to keep his strength up. If all went well, Wolf could snag another win under his belt before the day was over.

\----------

About sixteen minutes after leaving the lounge, Wolf had made it to the cafeteria. Much to his dismay however, he was faced with slim pickings as far meal selection was concerned. While there were still leftovers to choose from, most of the food already been eaten by other participants, and what was left was getting cold real quick. 

In hindsight, 2:50pm in the afternoon is not an optimal time to have lunch, as by that point a majority of the food available will most certainly be gone, and the kitchen staff won’t start cooking dinner for another couple of hours. Not that Wolf cared too much. As a freelance mercenary, he wasn’t too accustomed to the typical three-meals-a-day structure as most other people were.

Deciding to make the process easier for himself, Wolf simply picked up one of the leftover steaks and microwaved it, feeling that it would be good enough.

Taking his tray of food, Wolf looked around for a place to sit. Surprisingly enough, a decent number of the table and chairs were still occupied even though the lunch rush was over. If Wolf had to guess, it seemed that anyone who wasn’t currently in a match had probably stayed back to casually converse with their friends, teammates, and “Assists” (i.e Individuals not directly participating the in the tournament but were present to give aid to their colleagues when necessary) who were still eating.

As he looked around, Wolf spotted his own teammates at a table on the far end of the room. Young Link and Lucina were sitting beside each other and looked as if they were laughing, though it was hard to tell since their backs were facing Wolf. However, Isabelle was strangely nowhere in sight.

Wolf quickly scanned the around the room to see if there were any other places to sit. There wasn’t. Not unless he was feeling brave enough to sit in-between King K.rool and Wario as they stuffed their faces in the most uncivilized manner possible. Any other vacant seats were out of the question as they were stationed too close to large groups of people. The noise is was what Wolf hated the most and why he didn’t like eating in the cafeteria.

Not wanting to be bothered by anyone else’s company, Wolf let out a sign of defeat as he walked over to his teammates hoping they wouldn’t make too much of a fuss. Though their recent interactions with him haven’t been inherently negative (If only because Wolf intentionally distanced himself), there was still an air of awkwardness between Wolf and everyone in the team aside from Isabelle because of his brash attitude.

The metal tray let out a faint clang as Wolf placed it on the table and proceeded to start eating, his head slouched over resting on his left arm. His eye was closed in a deliberate attempt to not make eye contact with either of his teammates sitting across from him.

"...Well hello there Wolf." Lucina spoke up.

No response. Only the sound of angry chewing and metal scrapping against plastic.

"It's odd seeing you here." She continued.

"Why’s that? It's a cafeteria isn't it? And I'm hungry." Wolf shot back, his eye still closed.

"What she means is that it's odd seeing you sit with us at a table. Usually whenever you get food you just take it back to your room." Young Link chimed it.

“I have a match in a little while, it’s quicker just to eat here.” Wolf huffed.

“Are all the other seats taken?” Lucina questioned, quickly glancing across the crowded cafeteria herself.

"Is this a fucking interrogation or something? I just chose to sit down here and eat, is that okay?” He snapped. Wolf was beginning to regret his decision.

"It's fine Wolf. We just thought it was strange is all. That you suddenly want to sit with us." Lucina replied.

"Well why the hell are you two sitting with each other? shouldn't you be over chit-chatting with your home world companions that are also in the tournament?” Wolf asked.

"Don't you remember Wolf?” Young Link leaned forward, “Back when the tournament first started and we all got placed on a team, Isabelle had the idea for us all to sit together during lunch provided that none of us were in a match. She thought it would be a great team building exercise."

"However, if you recall correctly.” Young Link continued, “You didn't agree with that idea Wolf. You said that the less amount of time you had to spend with us the better. And then you never showed up."

Wolf just sat there for a second hazily looking at his food, thinking back to the first couple of days of the tournament. He vaguely remembered saying something like that. Truth be told, back then he was too angry at his predicament to really care.

Lucina neatly folded her hands on the table. “Since then, Young Link and I have been regularly talking outside of matches and getting to know each other. As it turns out, we have a lot more in common that either of us would originally have thought." she said, looking pleased.

"For instance, both me and Lucina have utilized time travel before in an effort to prevent great catastrophes from happening in our initial timelines" Young Link explained. "That’s not an experience many people can claim to go through, and honestly it feels good to be able to talk with someone who understands the hardships you go through in doing so." he continued, emphasizing that last point with sincerity.

Wolf had paused eating and looked at Young Link and Lucina with dull, glazed expression on his face as if to convey just how skeptical he was at hearing this. That explanation didn’t really seem to sit to well with him. While Wolf had experienced his fair share of strange events in the vast reaches of outer space, he found it hard to believe that either of them were capable of something as theoretically complicated as time travel.

One thing that did catch his interest however was how they mentioned Isabelle.

“You two mentioned this lunch room get together thing was Isabelle’s idea, right? Where is she by the way? I noticed she isn’t here, and I know that she doesn’t have any matches scheduled for today.” Wolf asked. He knew something was up, he hadn’t seen Isabelle for a couple of days now. She had even missed their early morning coffee commutes.

“Well we don't know the full details, but we think she is handling paperwork in the administration office." Lucina answered.

"Huh?" Wolf remarked.

"That’s what Villager told us when we asked about her."

"What the hell is she doing paperwork for?" Wolf asked dumbfounded.

Lucina rested her head on her hand as if in thought, "Like I said, we don't know but it's been taking up a lot of her time. That’s why she hasn't had very many solo matches lately. And most likely why she hasn't been eating lunch with us."

"So what you’re saying is that she's been skipping meals?...."

"Maybe, though it could also be that she's simply doing what you did and taking food with her so she can eat in the office."

"Somehow I doubt that." Wolf grumbled as he stared down at the remains of his food. His ravenous appetite was replaced with a sudden sobering concern for his teammate. Skipping meals when food is available to you is against all common sense. You take what food you can get when you can get it. This was something Wolf had to learn when he first started traveling through space. There had been times when he went a few days without eating a proper meal in-between missions. Thankfully that wasn’t the case with the Smash tournament, but that just served to prove Wolf’s point. 

Deep in thought, Wolf went for another bite of his steak, but what happened next served to steer the conversation in an unexpected way.

"You're concerned about her, aren’t you?" Young Link said casually.

Wolf Immediately froze in place, gripping his fork tightly as it was just a few centimeters away from his mouth. He then slowly put his hand back down on the table as he glared at Young Link.

"What the hell are you talking about kid?" Wolf growled.

"I'm just saying you sound like you’re concerned about her, there’s nothing wrong with that." The young child responded.

"What makes you think I am!?" Wolf shouted.

“Well, considering how quickly you’ve been willing to help Isabelle out lately whenever she’s having a hard time with something, I’d say that’s a pretty good indicator right there.”

Now on the defensive, Wolf’s overall tone changed. What was once mild annoyance had flared up into a simmering anger. Lucina scooted ever so slightly away from the canine’s line of sight, not wanting to get burned by the heat beginning the radiate from his harsh words.

"Anything I've done with her has only been in the interest of making this team win. You think I want to be dragged down by weaklings?" he argued. “I’m already nearing the middle of the barrel and it’s not helping that I’m **stuck** with you three!”

"Is that so? Then what about a week and half ago when we were fighting on the icicle mountain arena and you gave Isabelle your jacket to stay warm?"

"I did that to prevent her from getting sick. If she had, then she would have been withdrawn from our team for the next couple of matches, putting us at a disadvantage!

"What about that time you grappled Ken to the ground while he was trying to lightly push Isabelle out of bounds in the boxing ring?"

"That’s called covering your allies, kid! It's basic teamwork. I’ve covered both of your asses on the battlefield before."

"And what about you taking the time to help Isabelle practice her aim in the shooting gallery?"

Wolf's eye widened a little hearing this, he was caught off guard as he didn't think anyone saw that. "How…do you know about that?"

"I was practicing my archery across the room from you two. Neither of you noticed because I came in sometime after you two started. It’s also worth mentioning that the shooting gallery is open to everyone here, I’m likely not the only one who saw you." Young Link plainly stated.

The expression on Wolf’s face changed from one of belligerence to one of mild astonishment with a hint of embarrassment, he honestly was at a loss for words and didn’t know how to respond to this sudden turnabout. Worst of all, he was backed into a corner by some kid. Probably no older than Twelve by the looks of him.

About a couple minutes went by before anyone said anything. Wolf just sat there clenching his fork as if it were a stress-relief ball and looking at his half-eaten steak. He more or less lost his appetite.

Feeling a little guilty at his teammate’s change in disposition, Young Link spoke up once more, “Listen Wolf, neither Lucina or I are trying to get on your case about whatever is going on between you and Isabelle. Frankly we’ve just noticed that you two have been spending quite a bit of time together as of late. There’s nothing wrong with that, you shouldn’t feel ashamed of it either.”

To Wolf, this sounded like something a seasoned elder would say to a lost youth. Something far wiser beyond that of a child’s years.

Wolf was silent. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but hopefully the Hylian’s words had resonated somewhat with him, giving him a sense of reassurance in how he felt about all this.

“You said that as far as you’re aware, Isabelle hasn’t been eating lunch lately, right?” Wolf said in a soft tone, re-railing the conversation back to his initial question.

“Yes.” Lucina replied.

“And that she’s currently working in the administration office?”

“Correct.”

“...Well I think I ought to do something about that.” Wolf said as he got up from his seat.

 ----------

Wolf made his way down the hallways of the smash mansion following the directions to the administration department given to him by Lucina. So many turns at hallway intersections, a couple flights of stairs to walk up, passing by miscellaneous storage rooms. It was crazy how complex the inner architectural layout of the building was and this in turn served to remind Wolf just how utterly gigantic the smash mansion actually was. Something that he never quite noticed before given that he had little reason to venture through most of the place beyond going to the cafeteria for food, battle arenas for matches, or occasionally the shooting gallery to practice his marksmanship.

As he made his way closer to his destination, Wolf couldn’t help but grunt a little at having to carry a large box in a plastic bag as this way. He didn’t like feeling like a fast food delivery boy.

Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes of walking, Wolf had reached his destination: the administration office in the upper floor of the Smash mansion. Thankfully it didn’t take any time at all to find which room Isabelle was working in. He was led by the incessant clacks of a keyboard and the dull snaps of paperwork being stapled together. Approaching the half-open door of the office, Wolf stood in the gap between the door and the frame to see Isabelle fixated on the computer screen in front of her, clearly so engrossed in the work she was doing she didn’t even notice her fellow teammate standing a few feet away in front of her.

“Knock knock.” Wolf said while lightly tapping the back of his knuckle on the door to the office Isabelle was working in. The abrupt noise broke Isabelle’s concentration and snapped her out of her work-related trance.

“Ah-a W-Wolf what are you doing here?” Isabelle said, a little shaken up by her teammate’s sudden appearance. Now that she wasn’t staring at her computer screen, Isabelle took a moment to rub her eyes and re-focus her vision. 

“I could ask you the same question. Word is that you’re back here in the office cubicles doing paperwork?” Wolf questioned as he walked into the office.

“Ah yeah.” Isabelle replied faintly while trying to shift her focus back to all the papers on her desk and organize them. She continued, “At the behest of Master Hand and Crazy Hand, they asked me if I could assist them with the work load, given the nature of my job back home as a mayor’s assistant and city councilwomen, it seemed like reasonable request on their end.” Isabelle was speaking a little slower than usual. The peppy upbeat energy that normally radiated with her voice was gone and instead replaced with an aura of exhaustion surrounding her. This was easy to see judging by the look on her face, she looked beyond tired with slight bags under her eyes and a droopy expression.

“Hmm, now that’s strange, now would they ask you that? You’re already a participating fighter in the Tournament. Shouldn’t you be given the courtesy of not having to do any work like every other participant?” Wolf questioned yet again in a sly manner, almost as if he was trying to gauge whether of not Isabelle was despondent over her situation. To his surprise she wasn’t.

“Oh no I told them it was okay, I didn’t mind them asking me, In fact I am happy to help in any way I can.” Isabelle smiled and stapled another set of papers together.

“You might not know this but there’s a lot of work that goes into organizing these smash tournaments.  Getting everyone together, sending out invites, keeping the Smash mansion operating with all its facilities, paying for food to be served in the cafeteria, paying to have any damages made to the stages fixed, paying to have equipment that needs be replaced, and not to mention all medical costs for injuries that can happen in any of the matches.” At this point Isabelle was back to looking at her computer screen typing away on her keyboard as she was talking with Wolf. This was not an act of disrespect to him but rather a testament to her intense ability to multitask with so much work that still needed to be done.

“The list goes on, so it’s a little understandable why they reach out for extra help.”

Wolf hazily rolled his eyes hearing all this, to him this still felt like she was getting taken advantage of. “Seems a little rude to me that they would dump all this work on you. I mean, you’d think that they’d have the foresight to hire a proper amount of staff to organize this massive event.”

Isabelle paused for a second to look up at Wolf with a stern look indicating she took slight offense at what he said. “Please don’t say that. With an event as big as these smash tournaments you can never properly account for how much assistance you will need. Master Hand and Crazy Hand have worked hard to keep making this tournament happen.” In a sense Isabelle spoke from experience. Back home she helped plan and organize town events year-round and as such knew firsthand how much work it went into organizing stuff like this.

Breaking the uneasy tension that was just created, Isabelle quickly redirected the conversation with a more positive tone. “In any case it’s okay. As I said before, I honestly don’t mind helping out in any way I can. Not to mention I helped out with the paperwork for the last Smash tournament as well…although back then I was just brought on as an assist for that one so I had much more time to focus on doing the work.”

After finishing her sentence, about a minute of silence went by save for the constant clicking noise made by Isabelle typing away on the keyboard. Tired of holding onto what he had been carrying, Wolf wanted to ask one last question before doing what he came her to do. “If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been at this?”

Isabelle stopped typing and paused for a second to think about it, “Umm…” Isabelle muttered and then looked at the clock on the computer screen, “…about….twelve hours.” Isabelle laughed a little bit not realizing what time it was.

 “ _That long huh? She just doesn’t stop does she?_ ” Wolf thought to himself as he blankly stared as Isabelle with mild amazement though none of it showed on his face.

“Truth is, this isn’t even my record. Back home I almost broke twenty-two straight hours over the course of a weekend.” Isabelle added.

“I see.” Wolf said softly.

Without warning, Wolf dropped the box he was carrying with him right in front of Isabelle, square on top of her desk with all the paperwork she still had scattered across it, sending loose sheets of paper adrift to the floor.

“AAAHHH! WOLF PLEASE DON’T DO THAT! You’re going to mess up my work!” Isabelle shouted as she bent down to the floor frantically grabbing the few papers that fell off her desk.

“Eat.” Wolf uttered.

“…What?” Isabelle said as if bewildered by what he just said.

“I said eat. Lucina and Young Link said that you’ve skipped lunch the past four days now and from what you’ve just told me, you’ve been at this for eleven hours straight.”

Isabelle got back up to her desk and opened the box. To her surprise and delight what she found in it was a nicely cooked meal. A baked chicken pot pie with a side of gravy to be exact. It was the last one from the cafeteria line and Wolf had managed to snag it before it was discarded. The steam slowly rose from the open box, bringing in a warm aroma into the sterile, dusty office. Having not eaten for most of the day, this was a welcomed sight to behold for Isabelle, who just started to realize how hungry see was.

Isabelle became slightly flustered, being caught off guard by Wolf’s kind gesture.

“W-Wolf, I don’t know what to sa—“

“Then don’t say anything. Just accept the food.” This time it was Wolf’s turn to sound stern.

“But Wolf I don’t really I have ti—“

“Look just take a break and eat would you. That paper work is still gonna be there in another forty-five or hell even fifteen minutes from now so you may as well eat something so you don’t pass out.”

Isabelle remained silent as she looked at Wolf. While he remained stone faced as he normally did around his teammates, she could see a faint sense of sincerity in his eye.

“Anyway…” Wolf said as he turned around heading for the door “I have a match that’s about to start so I’ll leave you to your work or whatever.”

But just as he made it in-between the door frame and the hallway outside the room, Wolf suddenly stopped and without facing Isabelle said “You can do whatever you want on your own time, even if that means burying yourself in paper work. Just don’t do it to the extent that you collapse from exhaustion. That won’t help anyone, especially yourself.”

And with that bit of advice spoken Wolf was ready to leave except—

_“WOLF WAIT_!” Isabelle quickly shouted to get his attention before he ran off. Wolf stood in silence waiting for what Isabelle was going to say.

“….Thank you, and good luck with your match today. I wish you the best of luck.”

“Hmph, thanks but I don’t need luck.” Wolf said with a confident grin on his face as he closed the door and made his way to the battle arena.

With Wolf now gone, Isabelle sat there alone in her office processing the interaction she and Wolf just had. It was a very pleasant surprise to her that Wolf went out of his way to get something to eat for her, especially since she hadn’t told him about all the paperwork she had been doing the past week.

If she had to guess, Wolf probably found out by talking with Young Link and Lucina…or perhaps even the mayor. Though regardless of how he did find out, it was a sweet gesture, one of many that started to pile up now that Isabelle thought about it. In fact, it seemed that lately Wolf has been acting far less hostile and subtly more altruistic even if in extremely small amounts. It was a lot to think about, but now wasn’t the time for it.

Taking a second to clear her mind, Isabelle then put her computer on sleep mode and took off all the paperwork laid out on her desk and put it on the floor right beside her. She opened up the box once again, now ready to take that long overdue lunch break. As Isabelle suspected, the chicken pot pie tasted just as delicious as it looked.

_“I’ll have to think of a way to thank him properly for this later._ ” Isabelle thought to herself as she continued eating her meal.

\----------

The rest of the day seemed to pass by pretty quickly at the smash mansion. Before anyone knew it, nighttime had arrived seemingly without warning and brought the busy day to a close. With the current time being 11:27pm, most of smash participants were heading back to their dorm rooms for the night. Unfortunately, Isabelle was not one of them.

There she was, sleeping at her desk with her head rested on top of her closed laptop surrounded by stacks of paperwork. Experiencing a second wind after eating the meal Wolf had brought her, Isabelle went into a self-imposed “crunch time” mindset and tried to blaze through as much of the paperwork as she could by the end of the day.

Lucky for Isabelle, her efforts weren’t in vain as she managed to complete all the paperwork she had, even some that wasn’t expected to be finished for the next three days. By the end of it however, Isabelle was so tired and mentally worn-out that she simply plopped down where she was sitting and dozed off into sleep without a second thought.

Out of nowhere, the office door began to open slowly with the intention of making as little noise as possible. Young Link, Lucina, and Wolf all carefully walked into the room after peeking inside and seeing Isabelle slumped over her desk.

“I must say Wolf, you were not kidding when you said Isabelle was buried in paperwork” Lucina quietly whispered as she walked closer to Isabelle, making sure she was okay while also inspecting the clustered mess on the desk.

Wolf could only shake his head "Hmph... looks like she didn't take my advice and passed out. Exactly the kind of thing I was trying to warn her about."

"Stubborn to a fault and preferring to do things her way when she knows she can accomplish her end goal. In that way she's just like you Wolf." Young Link said in a somewhat teasing manner.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?" Wolf said as he glared intensely at Young Link while also trying his best to keep his voice down so as to not wake Isabelle.

Completely unfazed at Wolf’s threatening tone, Young Link just smiled earnestly and said, "Easy Wolf, don't take it so harshly, I wasn't saying that like it was strictly a bad thing.”

“…Whatever” Wolf muttered.

“You really have to give her credit though, it looks like she managed to finish all of this paper work. It's all stamped, processed, and organized." Lucina said quickly flipping through various pages stacked on top of each other. “What my father wouldn’t give to have someone like her in charge of safe-keeping royal documents.”

Wolf remained silent for a brief moment before taking off his jacket and handing it to Lucina. "Can you do me a favor and hold this?"

"I...guess so, but why?" Lucina asked as she took the jacket from his hand, confused at the request.

Wolf walked over and carefully picked up Isabelle, doing his best not to wake her up in the process. Considering how light she was, this wasn’t hard to do. Wolf then gently rested her over his shoulder. "So I can carry her without worrying that the spikes on my jacket might accidentally cut her."

Curious at his words, Lucina lightly brushed her finger against the brass shoulder spikes of Wolf’s jacket. Indeed, they felt sharp enough to break skin.

Wolf now began walking towards the door, “"Come on, let’s get her back to her room."

"How thoughtful of you Wolf, I'm sure she'll greatly appreciate this when she wakes up." Young Link beamed.

" _Will you shut up already!_ " Wolf groaned under his breath as quietly as he could.

And with that, the four of them departed from the administration department, making their way back to the dorm rooms.

“When we get the chance, we should all talk with Master Hand and see if he'll lessen the work load for Isabelle, this is too much to ask of her." Lucina stated as they began walking down the hallway. Both Wolf and Young Link agreed. Meanwhile, Isabelle was still fast asleep on Wolf’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, an extra-long chapter this time. I hope you guys didn’t mind the wait. In reality, I actually had the original draft for this chapter written months ago (around the time I first started submitting this fic) but I held off from releasing it so I could go back and add more to the chapter. I’m glad I did because I feel this chapter came out much better than it originally would have had I stuck with the original draft.
> 
> As a special treat, my friend was kind enough to draw two illustrations for this chapter considering it’s double the usual length. This isn’t to say it’s gonna be a constant thing for longer chapters, we’re still gonna primarily stick to one per chapter, but it’s a nice little thank you for all of you for being so patient. 
> 
> Lastly there are a few things I want to clear up just incase anyone is curious. 1) Wolf doesn’t disbelieve in time travel (that’s kind of hard to do considering he is participating in a multi-dimensional tournament orchestrated by two floating hands that can partially bend space/time) but rather he just finds it hard to believe Young Link and Lucina are capable of doing so….oh if only he knew. And 2) “Assists” are indeed characters who are assist trophies in the games. In the context of this fic, they take residence in the smash mansion but aren’t officially in the tournament themselves, rather they just provide assistance in various duties to either help the tournament or any participants when needed.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading.


	6. Reflections of The Past

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience everyone, this shouldn't take too long." Young Link said as he led his team down a large non-descript hallway, one of many that comprised the layout of the smash mansion.

"It's no problem at all Young Link. Get what you need to be prepared for the match." Isabelle perked up.

"This better be quick.” Wolf grumbled from the back of the group. He was deliberately walking slower than everyone else so that he would have a little room to himself.

"Relax Wolf, we still have an hour before the match starts. We won't miss it." Lucina reassured him. Though it was easy to see that Wolf wasn’t fully convinced judging by the unchanged, deadpan expression on his face. Trying to walk anywhere in a place as gigantic as the smash mansion was always a time-consuming process where you were liable to show up late. 

In truth, Wolf was still a little on edge due the interactions he had with Young Link and Lucina a few days ago when they ate in the lunch room together. His small outburst at them when he felt as though they were prying too much into his business regarding Isabelle set a sour mood for him since then and put him on the defensive. Even If Young Link had assured Wolf that they were not trying to antagonize him in any way.

Still, the distance Wolf tried to maintain with Young Link and Lucina was mitigated somewhat by all three of them going to Master Hand the following day and asking him about lessening the workload for Isabelle. As it turned out, Master Hand was honestly unaware of how overstressed Isabelle had been from all the paper work and sincerely apologized to her. As a thanks for all the hard work she had put in to helping the staff, Master Hand granted Isabelle a full break from any office work for the next three months allowing her to relax in her spare time between tournament matches.

This brings us back to now, a full three days later. Isabelle was all rested up and ready for the team’s first match in over a week and half. Something long overdue in Wolf’s opinion (even if he still had his single matches), as this meant the team could start increasing their tournament team ranking again.

That is of course if they were going to be able to make it back to the battle arena in time. 

"Hey kid, how do you even know this is the right storage room? All of these hallways look identical.” Wolf spouted.

“I used this room a lot during the second tournament when I was last here, so I remember exactly where it is. Lucky for us it’s on the same floor as the battle arenas so it’s not too far away.” Young Link replied.

“Right… and remind me again why we’re all going there?”

“Well in case you didn’t notice, I just need to grab a spare deku shield.” Young Link pointed to his back. It was funny to say but without his shield, Young Link’s back looked strangely empty. Naked even, save for his sword tightly locked into its sheath.

“My last one broke earlier this morning when I was fighting against Roy. That Binding Blade of his is no joke! Just a couple of hits from it burnt my shield to a crisp. Thankfully I have some spares stored away in this room.”

“As for why we’re all going,” He looked back at Wolf with a smile, “We all agreed as a general rule to stick together right before matches begin, remember?”

No sooner had Young Link finished his sentence had the group arrived at their destination. Wasting no time, Young Link quickly opened the door and flipped the light switch to reveal the room’s interior. The faint illumination from the old ceiling lights displayed a large rectangular room divided into sections by rows of metal shelves as well as numerous crates stacked upon each other with plenty of other boxes cluttered around the back of the room. 

As Lucina, Isabelle and Wolf walked in behind Young Link, the first thing that became apparent to them about the room other than its layout was its size. It was particularly big in comparison to the all the other storage rooms the combatants were given access to, enough so that it was almost half the size of the lounge.

But what made this storage room truly different however was the fact that it mainly housed outdated and obsolete equipment no longer used for the tournaments. Original model blasters, beam swords, old cracker fireworks launchers, and even cloaking devices that no longer worked were all stashed away in various crates around the room. Some of which were even missing their lids causing the equipment to stick out in the open.

“Oh wow, it looks like a lot of stuff has really piled up in this room over the years huh? It might take a minute or two to find the small box with my shields in it." Young Link stated awkwardly.

“The sight of so many different kinds of weapons and tools stored together in one place reminds me of my father’s old weapon supply room back at our castle. The only difference with this room however is that it’s severely cluttered and disorganized.” Lucina added as she observed the small layers of dust on everything. The room clearly hadn’t been tended to in quite a while.

Wolf rubbed his forehead in slight frustration. "You’ve got to be kidding me. Do you even know if your shields are still in here with all this useless crap!?"

“They should be. Master Hand said that he didn't get rid of them just in case he ever invited me back." Young Link said as began to press himself up against the wall and carefully scooted himself between all the large crates.

“Just sit tight guys, I’ll be back in a minute.” And just like that, Young Link disappeared from sight amidst all the storage items.

Faint sounds of rummaging could be heard as Young Link continued traversing through the back of the storage room when suddenly a loud crashing noise came out of nowhere. “I’m okay! Just knocked a few things over.” Young Link shouted.

Exasperated and having no choice but to sit and wait for his teammate to find what he was looking for, Wolf simply closed his eye, folded his arms, and proceeded to leaned against the wall as if to make a non-verbal statement that just screamed “ _don't bother me until you're finished and we can leave.”_

Picking up on this cue but not wanting Wolf to completely seclude himself away from the team in his usual habits, Isabelle decided to stand next to Wolf. She hummed quietly to herself to patiently pass the time. She had had enough interaction with him at this point to be able to pick up on some of his mannerisms, including obvious signs of irritation. Even still, she knew Wolf wasn’t nearly as reclusive as he often presented himself. She made sure to stand just far enough to give him some space, but also close enough so he wouldn’t feel alone.

This turned out to be a good call on Isabelle’s part as her quirky humming actually tempered Wolf' mood a bit by how adorable it was even if he didn’t show it. 

Meanwhile, Lucina's curiosity got the better of her as she began to look around the room, inspecting all the equipment and miscellaneous junk that had been abandoned for one reason or another. She couldn’t help but marvel at all of the so called “outdated” technological gadgetry. Most of the stuff that had been left to collect dust would still be considered far more advanced than most weaponry available to people back in her time period.

This held true for most of the things she had come across since coming to the smash mansion during the last tournament. Video screens, controlled water systems, artificial lighting utilized by harnessing electricity, automatic weapons, these things were all new to her and unlike anything she experienced back home where all manner of industrial tools seemed archaic by comparison. The prevalence of high-end magic seemed to be the one thing that was closest to the futuristic technology Lucina had been exposed to, but even then, the two things couldn’t be fully compared to one another. 

She really felt out of her element being here, another thing her and Young Link had in common that they had bonded over.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucina saw something familiar that drew her attention. It was a large wooden bin with metal casing that was filled with swords Lucina immediately recognized. Roughly edged bronze swords with a dulled greenish-grey tint piled out of the casing.

"So, this is where Robin has been keeping them." Lucina said quietly to herself.

She had always wondered where the master tactician of her father’s army kept all the bronze swords they frequently used in battle. It seemed that Young Link wasn’t the only one that used this room to keep spares of less durable weapons. It was funny how everything seemed so replaceable here. With such an ease of access too.

"I found them!” Young Link shouted from behind multiple crates, breaking the silence between his teammates. While Wolf remained unfazed, Lucina and Isabelle turned their heads in the direction where Young Link's voice was coming from. He managed to come back into view from the opposite side of the room by carefully crawling underneath an open gap between two wooden creates filled with used smoke balls.

“Sorry for the delay but it’s far more clustered in the back of the room than it is here in the front. It’s like crawling through a dungeon in there! But I got my spare deku shield, so I’m all good to go!” Young Link said as he stood up and dusted himself off. He then adjusted the shield on his back to make sure it was properly fastened to his sword’s sheath.

 “Including this one, I only have about four shields left. I should be a little more careful using them If I want them to last the rest of the tournament." Young Link added.

Hearing this, Wolf finally got up from his position. "Here's a question kid, why the hell are you even bothering to use these flimsy shields anyway? If they break so easily you should get better equipment. I've seen your counterparts using metal shields that look a lot more durable, why aren’t you using one yourself?"

Young Link let out an odd chuckle, he had the look of slight embarrassment on his face and seemed to take the question nervously "Well...you certainly aren’t wrong Wolf. In fact, I agree with you. The truth is I actually do have a better assortment of weapons including shields, I just chose not to bring them with me to this tournament."

"Why?" Wolf scoffed. "Who the hell comes to a fighting tournament like this, deliberately using poor quality weapons?”

“Well that’s kind of a long story Wolf, one that I’m sure you aren’t too interested in hearing right now given your tone.”

“Whatever kid.” Wolf brushed off Young Link’s response. “Just make sure we don’t lose our placement down the line because your equipment breaks, and you can’t fight anymore.”

“I’ll be sure to do that. But know this Wolf. I am a very different person than when I first came to this mansion during the first smash tournament. I have my reasons. After all, the weight of your travels can really change your perception of things.”

As the team began making their way to the storage room exit, Lucina's cape caught onto to something sticking out of a box on a filing rack near the door. Without realizing until it was too late, her cape pulled the box from its shelving and dropped to the floor with a resulting loud crashing sound. Immediately everyone’s attention was drawn to the numerous miscellaneous items and devices that had been scattered across on the floor.

“Oops” Lucina said innocently.

“Now what the hell did you go and do that for?” Wolf barked.

“Ah sorry. It feels like this cape is just more trouble than it’s worth sometimes.” Lucina humorously joked. Embarrassed, she immediately knelt down to pick up the scattered objects.

“Just leave it” Wolf said bluntly. “It’s not our problem, just let the custodian or whoever's job it is to clean these storage rooms take care of it."

“Given the state of this room I highly doubt that.” Young Link quietly added in.

“It’s fine. This will only take a minute.” Lucina grabbed a couple of old blasters and started balancing them on her arms.

“We don’t have time for this.” Wolf argued.

“It’s not that much Wolf, calm down.” Isabelle spoke up.

“It doesn’t matter, It’s not our problem. We have 30 minutes left before our match starts and it’s a long walk back to the arena. Let’s just go already!” 

"No wolf.” Isabelle replied. "It's a mess we made, and we should clean it up. It's only a small spill and it won't take too long if we all help Lucina pick everything up.”

“You know If you guys would stop worrying about shit like this, we’d start winning some matches.”

“This _is_ important! If we can’t clean up clutter together as a team, there’s no way we can fight any other kind of battle and win!”

“Hey, you can’t just—"

As Wolf looked at Isabelle, he could see the sternness in her eyes. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

Lucina spoke from her kneeled position on the floor. “Let’s not fight about this. Wolf, you can go on ahead—“

“Fine…I’ll help.” He spouted.

As it turned out, the box that had been accidentally knocked over was the old “lost and found” bin used during prior tournaments for anything that had been left unattended for extended periods of time or had simply been discarded around the mansion. Old Pokéballs with nothing inside them, worn out white gloves, tattered caps, a heavily damaged visor mask, and even some rusted old bolt's and screws that had to have come from either R.O.B or Megaman.

“Who’s even supposed to be in charge of this?” Wolf angrily questioned.

“I don’t know, but the Lost and Found in the mayor’s town would never get this bad.” Isabelle added in.

A few minutes passed by as everyone in the team went silent as they continued the small clean up session. Wolf briefly looked over to Isabelle as she was picking up discarded smash ball logo shirts.

“S _he’s kinda cute when she’s mad_.” He thought to himself.

In the midst of everyone putting everything back into the box, Isabelle picked up something strange.

What's this?" she said holding up what appeared to be head gear. It looked like two metal straps connected to a weird high-tech eye lens that happened to be cracked. The metal casing also seemed to be heavily scratched and partially rusted showcasing its severe wear and tear.

"Well now, I didn't think I’d ever see this thing ever again." Wolf said.

"You know what this is wolf?"

"Yeah, to put it into simple terms it's basically a prosthetic eye and it was originally mine.”

Hearing this, all attention was put on wolf as his teammates looked at him with piqued curiosity.

"...A prosthetic eye? is that even possible?" Lucina questioned in disbelief. being a royal born warrior who grew up on the battlefield Lucina was no stranger to the concept of prosthetics for missing body parts people would lose or have heavily damaged in combat, however this concept would only extent as far as limbs like and arm or a leg. A damaged eye is something that usually cannot be replaced or fixed through normal means.

“Hmph." Wolf uttered as he grinned slightly, "Oh it's possible all right, with the right technology you'd be surprised what can be made".

"This thing was developed on a planet called Katina located back in my home galaxy of the Lylat system. It’s part of a specialized series of technology made for developing advanced prosthetics and organs. I got my hands this device about four or five years ago to serve as replacement for my left eye I lost a long time ago.

Isabelle’s face lit up in excitement. She was clearly interested in the technical specs of the gadget. It was something she had never seen before and wanted to understand more on how futuristic body replacements could possibly function.

"How does it work!? Isabelle asked enthusiastically.

“It's a little complicated but—“ Wolf held up the headgear and pointed at the lens.” This screen display on the lens of the ‘eyepatch’ is meant to go over your missing or damaged eye and acts as a video camera that records what you see in front of you. It then converts that visual video information in electrical signals right here.” Wolf said pointed at the small compartment on the side of the headgear right next to the lens.

"After that, it transmits all of the electronic signals to the implant the person would have to get inside of their head and bam! You're able to see through what is essentially an artificial eye."

As a demonstration, Wolf then put the old headgear on his head to show his teammates how it would fit. "Feels like old times wearing this thing".

All three of his teammates were stunned in amazement. Both at the technical explanation of how Wolf’s former gadget worked but more so because It was the first time Wolf had spoken to the group as a whole without a glazed expression. There was a what seemed like a slight gleam in his eye as he reminisced about a time not too long ago.

"That’s a very impressive gadget Wolf. I never would have imagined something like this could be possible. But I'm confused, you said you got it to replace your missing eye years ago? My question is why did you get rid of it?” Lucina asked.

"Well despite what I just said, this thing has with some serious drawbacks.” Wolf said taking the headgear off.

"For one, getting the necessary implant surgically put into and later taken of out my head for this thing to work was a serious pain in the ass. Moreover, it was very difficult to keep maintenance since it is a very delicate gadget. Any minor glitch, error, or damage would cause it to stop working immediately.

"But the biggest hurdle was the fact that there was generally a second or two delay with the information being sent from the lens to the implant to my brain. other than throwing off my timing often, this inconsistency with the visual information with vision often made me very disorientated and gave me headaches.

“By the end of the third tournament I had enough and just discarded this thing. I'm guessing someone on the staff picked it up thinking someone had lost it and put it in the lost and found bin.

"In the end I just figured it wasn't worth the trouble or the literal headaches. I had to just accept what I had lost and learn to deal with my handicap properly." Wolf said as he lightly threw his electronic eye patch back into the lost and found box. "Maybe in another ten or twenty years when I can get an actual artificial eye that works without any of the issues or problems this one does, I may reconsider it. But for the time being I'm content with how I am.

"So, are we done here?" Wolf questioned with a slight sarcastic tone.

Young Link and Lucina had just finished picking up the last few items and putting the rest back into the box.

"Yeah I think we’re good." Lucina said placing the box back onto the shelf.

And with that the team left the storage room.

 ----------

"Well that was quite an informative trip. You have quite the interesting story behind your equipment Wolf.” Isabelle perked up. “Kind of makes me wish I had some special history of my own to share.”

"But you do Isabelle.” Lucina chimed. “It’s the same for all of us. We each bring something new to the table. A little part of our worlds to share with others. Things, ideas, experiences we’d never be able to come across in our lifetimes. Even if it’s just crossing our swords on the battlefield, we all share our story in different ways, even if we say nothing at all.” Lucina’s hand loosely moved across the hilt of the Parallel Falchion sheathed on her belt. She suddenly became more aware of its weight.

“Not only are we a part of our own worlds, but we are a part of this one, as well as all the worlds that connects through here. Interconnected even through our smallest actions.”

“That’s so inspiring Lucina.” Isabelle said in awe at her teammate’s insight. “Wisdom like that must come from a lifetime of adventuring!”

“Well for a time, I was so obsessed with securing a future for myself, for my family, for the world. And once I had accomplished that, I realized I didn’t think about what that future would even look like. Now I sometimes wonder if they’ll tell stories about me, a hundred years from now. I even wonder what kind of story I’ll be making for myself tomorrow. Or perhaps I’m just paranoid.”

Lucina’s powerful words seemed to stir something up inside Wolf as it made him wonder what kind of story he would end up making over the course of his life. Or if it even mattered at all. Space wasn’t as fond of legends as planet-siders. Its endless scope seemed to have a way of making everything seem irrelevant or trivial.

It suddenly occurred to Wolf how little he understood about his teammates and their motivations, especially Isabelle. How much did he really know about her beyond the surface-level stuff they often talked about during their early morning coffee meetups?

Out of nowhere Wolf stopped dead in his tracks, His fur stood on end as a chill went down his spine. Wolf could feel a very faint sense of bloodlust in the air, a sensation he hadn't experienced for quite a while. It was hard to pick up where it was coming from, but he could tell it was directed at him.

Young Link, Lucina, and Isabelle all turned around as they noticed Wolf's unmoving stature.

"Wolf what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Isabelle asked.

Young Link and Lucina knew something was up as they looked at Wolf's disposition and then back at each other. Being warriors themselves who have been in plenty of life or death situations, they had started to pick up on the uneasy feeling in the air.

Wolf turned his head around to look behind him at the empty hallway, only to see nothing. There was no sign of anyone anywhere. Though it was hard to say, he was sure the intense feeling was coming from behind him.

He just stood there for a good minute just looking down the hallway as if expecting someone to just walk up to him and reveal themselves, but alas, no one did.

Now concerned, Isabelle walked over to his side and placed her paw gently on his arm nudging him a bit, "Wolf what’s going on? What are you staring at?"

No response. All three of her teammates remained silent, giving Isabelle the impression she was missing something important.

Wolf broke his stance and turned back to face her. "It's nothing Isabelle, I just thought someone was watching me that’s all.” Wolf said in a reassuring tone, though the look in his eye said otherwise. A small detail that didn’t escape the notice of Young Link and Lucina.

“I'm just imagining things. C’mon, let’s go, we have a match to get to.”

Wolf guided Isabelle to start walking with him as he gestured for Young Link and Lucina to follow suit. 

 As the squad of four walked towards the designated fighting arena disappearing from sight, a strange shadow began to appear on the wall of the far end of the hallway where it split into a two-way dividing path.

The shadow's silhouette took on a large menacing appearance as a serrated serpentine-like tail slipped out from around the hallway corner while a large claw gripped the corner of the intersected wall.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well now, it seems that this chapter isn’t so much strictly Wolf x Isabelle centered content, as it is a little bit of continuity/world building. This chapter was more or less a chance for me to elaborate a little further on both Wolf and Young Link’s character and their connections to the past smash tournaments they were in, and how that fits in with their characters presently.
> 
> Unfortunately, I had some difficulty with in integrating Young Link's part in the chapter, so I had to cut it out. I didn't want it to feel crammed in and bloat the chapter with too much exposition (more so then there already is), so I decided to save it for a future chapter when I can fit it in when it feels natural. The irony in this decision is that after doing this I expanded Lucina’s role a bit to give her a little more presence.
> 
> I want to give a very special thanks to my friend Jonathan for going above and beyond with this chapter’s Illustration, he put a lot of work into it and I’m very grateful for all his efforts. Also, in addition to his twitter account previously mentioned, My friend has just recently restarted his old DA account under the username “Bacchusdiem”. Please be sure to go check it out when you can as he also uploads the chapter illustrations there in addition to his own artwork.
> 
> Lastly, I also want to say thank you to everyone for being so patient with the uneven release schedule of new chapters. I know how hard it can be waiting for new content for fanfictions and fancomics so it makes me happy that all of you who are interested in the fic are being so understanding. I'll do my best to keep a decent enough schedule for the fic.


End file.
